Glossary of Terms

Air Conditioning – any process of controlling temperature, humidity, cleanliness or motion of the air.

Ambient – The surrounding environment. For enclosure cooling, this includes either indoor or outdoor conditions, factors such as temperature, humidity, air quality and solar radiation.

Blower – A motorized device for moving air.

British Thermal Unit (BTU) – A unit of heat energy. A typical rating of a cooling system is in BTU/H, British Thermal Units per Hour. 1 BTU = .293 Watt

Capillary Tube – A small bore copper tube used in a refrigeration system to meter refrigerant flow and maintain a pressure differential.

CE – Conformite Europeenne, French for European Conformity. This mark means the product has met the provisions of the applicable European Directives and conformity with mandatory European safety requirements.

Closed Loop Cooling – A method of providing cooling for an enclosure without introducing outside air into the enclosure.

CFM – Cubic Feet per Minute, a measure of air volume.

Compressor – The heart of the refrigeration system, pressurizes and moves refrigerant through the system.

Condensation – The change in state of a substance from a vapor to a liquid.

Condensate Evaporator – A basin where condensate is collected for the purpose of evaporating by applying heat.

Condenser Coil - Usually a copper tube aluminum fined radiator type device exposed to the ambient air for the purpose of rejecting heat.

Corrosive Coating – An anti-corrosive spray or dip that is applied to the surface of materials that may be exposed to corrosives in the air.

Dew Point – A temperature condition where moisture will begin to separate from air.

Digital Controller – Receives input from temperature sensors and provides an outputs to control the heating or cooling system, and provide alarm outputs such high enclosure temperature, low enclosure temperature, high condenser temperature and filter maintenance alarm.

Filtered Fan Package – A cooling system that provides ventilation of an enclosure with filtered air intake and exhaust.

Hazardous Duty Air Conditioner – A cooling system required where flammable gases, vapors or liquids may be present. Ice Qube offers ETL tested, 3rd party approved air conditioners for use in Class I and II, Division 2, Class III Hazardous (Classified) Locations (UL-1604, 3 February, 2004) with regard to the risk of explosion. Ice Qube models are also Classified for Class I Zone 2, Group IIB.

Heat – A form of energy causing molecular activity.

Heat Exchanger - A device for transferring heat from one media to another through a separating device, usually some type of heat conductive material. Typical types are air to air, air to liquid, and liquid to liquid.

Hot Gas Bypass Valve – A refrigerant control valve that allows a portion of the refrigeration system’s discharge gas to be routed to the system’s low pressure side for the purpose of capacity control or to prevent freezing. A component of Ice Qube’s low ambient option.

Hood – A protective shield over an opening to help prevent water damage from pressurized wash down of equipment. Relative Humidity - An indication of the air’s moisture content generally expressed as a percentage of saturated air at a given condition.

Internal Heat Load – Heat generated by the equipment located inside of an enclosure.

Insulation – A material that reduces or prevents the passage of heat, electricity or sound. The ability to prevent heat passage is typically given in “R” values, where the greater the “R” value, the greater the insulating quality.

Latent Heat – Heat that causes a substance phase change.

Mechanical Thermostat – A manually adjustable device with electrical contacts that cycle a heating or cooling system in response to temperature changes.

MTBF – Mean Time Between Failure, the average time before a product failure, or the average useful life of a product before it must be repaired or replaced.

Temperature – A measure of heat intensity. The most common scales to measure heat intensity are Fahrenheit and Centigrade. Two scientific scales are Rankine and Kelvin.

Thermal Management – Techniques for heat dissipation to improve reliability and to increase the life of electrical and electronic equipment.

Thermoelectric Cooling – a solid state device where passing electrical current through a junction causes a cooling effect on one side and a heating effect on the other side, sometimes referred to as a Peltier device.

Top Mount – A position sensitive cooling system designed to mount horizontally on the top of an enclosure, sometimes called a roof mount.